![]() ![]() It's what gives Beyoncé's furious, tragic "Sorry" hope and satisfaction "Me and my baby, we gon' be alright, we gon' live a good life" in the coda is immediately understood, with our recognition of Blue Ivy and the way she has settled into the Beyoncé family mythology. They give the song the sense of gossip or confession, a discussion you'd have with your mate over drinks. Songs that use moments of absolute specificity-the specificity of using a recognizable name-briefly erase this distance. The relationship between a musician and a fan is an endlessly complicated one, frequently negotiated and renegotiated, new borders drawn and distances set. Both songs are Ariana giving her fans exactly what they want, a window into relationships that felt at times completely open for public view, though whose outputs were, of course, immaculately controlled. ![]() And it names someone else, too: Ariana herself, the new love interest, sketching out her own fears and hopes in sweet, simple detail. "Thank u, next" is notable for its tenderness, a breakup song that is endlessly generous and kind. ![]() Along with the Davidson reference ("Even almost got married/ and for Pete I'm so thankful"), Ariana explicitly checks her three other famous exes: Mac Miller, Big Sean, and Ricky Alvarez. The lyrics' vagueness, their almost casual certainty ("I'mma be happy") and shorthand romance ("I know you know you're my soulmate, and all that") are tied into the wider, brilliant move of the name of the track itself, "pete davidson." Then, three months after Sweetener was released and just two weeks after Ariana and Pete broke up, "thank u, next" came out, the mother of all name-droppers. The song is all soft pastel aesthetics and utterly untroubled public affection. And right bang in the middle of it-almost uncannily in the middle of it, when you consider promotion cycles and attention spans-was the new Ariana album, Sweetener, and its 73-second Davidson-dedicated second-to-last track. Such was the case following the brief, glorious starburst of Ariana Grande and Pete Davidson, which felt like a perfect encapsulation of the celebrity relationship: ridiculous, over-the-top, both clearly misguided and desperately adorable, at once a promise that true love exists and that the kids are still, after all, fucking idiots-as they should be. There's joy to be found in the fandom of guesswork, or even when there's no guessing required, and sheer implication affords us the beautiful truth that Joanna Newsom's complicated lyrics about love and mortality center around the guy who wrote "Dick in a Box." But, every now and then, a musician gives their fans insight into a publicly discussed relationship like a gift with a sign out front: This is about exactly who you think it's about. That's why Taylor Swift leaves clues in her album liner notes and Carly Simon kept mum about the anti-hero of "You're So Vain" for nearly 50 years. We're used to speculating about the hidden meanings within our favorite songs, and many artists encourage this type of guessing game. ![]()
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